About a Month ago I found this forum and posted about how on a recent vacation I experienced sudden shortness of breath.. after having the necessary test..all was normal. I do have low thyroid levels and extremely low hormone levels.. the thyroid issue isn't being treated because my doctor feels at this time it's not severely low enough to warrant medication.. I recently started hormone treatment.. I take estradiol once daily.. and progesterone once daily.. about two weeks ago my doctor decided to treat my shortness of breath with a steroid.. antibiotics and inhaler..he also upped my lamictal to double dose.. I think he believes this is all stemming from anxiety.. he is aware of my low levels and said himself it could be the thyroid issue.. after taking all the antibiotics and steroids I honestly felt better for about a week.. no problems.. a few days ago the shortness of breath came back out of no where..although not a severe as the first time I am noticing it getting worse.. I am aware that I'm thinking about it and that I am breathing more through my mouth because it feels like I can't get enough air through my nose.. it's almost like breathing feels weird..and not natural at all.. almost feels like I forgot how to do it.. I have done research and watched videos on deep breathing exercises grateful helped and I have been trying to put them to use in my breathing but it seems as if my brain has convinced my body that something is wrong.. I want to reach out because from experience it helps to calm my irrational thinking.. please any advice or common problems would be of great help..
You have a situatiin going on here. Its not the basic anxiety going on. Low levels cause issues and you are in hormones and was given steriods (which induce anxiety although help with inflammation) see if it just calms down in its own over the next two weeks. Things hooefully will balance out and the steriod will be out of your system.p (take up to two weeks). Then theres an app bellybio that can help teach you proper breathing using your belly nit your chest so you can breathe deeper and it will calm you much better then shallow chest breathing.
So steroids can make shortness of breath worse? Shortness of breath started prior to steroids and the steroids actually seemed to help.. now I can definitely tell that my breathing isn't normal..like I am taking deep breaths instead of the normal shallow ones.. confusing..I know that low thyroid levels can cause this..
After the steriods are done your body has to readjust. A week or a bit after its fixes itself. You need to belly breath. Better for you. Any imbalance of the hormones will mess around with how you feel.